EASTERN AFGHANISTAN ATTACK LEAVES 25 OR MORE KILLED

The story that I found was about 25 militants being killed when there was an attack on a NATO camp from MSNBC. An attack in Eastern Afghanistan killed around 25-30 insurgents according to this news story. Troops returned fire with their attackers but there were no civilian, NATO, or Afghan troop casualties. There was no mention of why the troops were attacked; it only says that the attacks were coming from the Pakistan side of the boarder. However, when looking at the articles from CNN and Fox, they both reported different casualties. CNN reported that more than 30 insurgents died and Fox reported that exactly 30 insurgents had died and 3 NATO militants, unlike MSNBC that said not NATO personnel was killed. The articles were basically the same in regards to the insurgents being attacked and killed and they all gave very brief general information on the subject. What I did find interesting was that all of the news stories did not only report on the insurgents being killed although that was the title of their article, they also reported on different things that were going on in Afghanistan. All of the news stations had a different story integrated in this main article about NATO troops being attacked. CNN also reported about ISAF deaths in a bombing and also about coalition forces conducting a precision air strike that killed a Taliban commander. FOX did mention the killing of the Taliban commander but also reported on the elections inside this story. They mentioned that there were rocket attacks and bombings at polling stations in Afghanistan. MSNBC reported the casualties of Denmark and Scandinavian troops and also included a story about the helicopter crash that remains a mystery. This only goes to show me that although news stations may report on the same topics, they take the importance of it differently and may have other stories they feel important within it as well. I think that we should know about this story, but the only problem is that more “important” things are happening that overshadow it. So although these stories are being reported on, they are only small in comparison to other stories that Americans find more important, such as Americans dying in attacks and things that are happening in the United States.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/25/afghanistan.violence/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/09/25/nato-afghan-journalists-freed-outcry-detainments-alleged-taliban-propaganda/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39315622

Indiana Kids Died After 10 Hours in Closet

A woman has recently been arrested for locking her five children in a closet for a minimum of 10 hours. The police who did the investigation said that the time period may have been longer and she more than likely did this on more than one occasion. The woman's children consisted of a seven-year old and five-year old girls, as well as a five, three, and one year old sons; This is a total of six children.

According to police reports the woman, who is an immigrant from Somalia, locked the children in a closet that was six feet wide and 18 inches deep and pushed a large bed in front of it so they could not get out. Apparently the accused woman only went over to a neighbors apartment in the same complex and when she returned she found two of her children, the 5 year old girl and 3 year old boy "stiff and unresponsive". According to the mother she took them out of the closet but did not call 9-1-1. She said that she was not in her right mind when she locked her children in the closet. The children were found when a neighbor grew suspicious because the mother would not let anyone in her house and called an uncle of the children. He would not let her in at first but he saw the bodies on the couch and called the police. Police say that the two children were"in full rigor mortis" when they arrived with no pulse. The father of the children had went to Somalia to see his parents and is currently back on the way to the U.S.

As we continue to see growing stories of child abuse, I can't help but feel sorry for the children who are in this predicament unwillingly. Although they are now in protective services the siblings will more than likely get split up during adoption processes. It makes you wonder what kind of "monster" could treat children like this. And for this woman to have a total of six children you would think that she would care for them in some way being that they are her own flesh and blood. Why keep reproducing if you are going to treat your children like this? The youngest of the children was a one year old, and to leave a one year old locked in a closet with children who don't even know how to take care of themselves, much less a one year old, it an outrageous act. I personally hope that this woman gets locked underneath the jail and that the father of the children had no speculation of the way his children were being treated by the mother of his children so that they may be able to live a better more productive life than they did with their mother.

To view the entire news story, please visit the ABC website:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=11693350

The Grim Sleeper

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/grim-sleeper-serial-killer-nabbed-arrest-made-la/story?id=11109240

As I searched for recent serial killers, the vast majority of them were from past decades and centuries ago. Not many were from the recent years although there were few. One that I came across that I found interesting was the ‘Grim Sleeper’. This was an unidentified believed serial killer who was given this particular name because of the period in between the murders they committed. A suspect and who police believe to certainly be the ‘Grim Sleeper’ was just recently arrested in July of this year, 2010. The now 57 year old, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., is suspected of committing 10 murders and one attempted murder. All of the victims were young black women and the attempted murder was the only man involved in this crime spree. The ‘Grim Sleeper’ committed murders from 1985 through most recently 2007. Franklin is currently awaiting his court date where he faces up to life in prison or possible execution for his crimes.

The article posted above, from ABC news, does a fairly good job of blending the profile of the serial killer as well as the crimes that he committed. There is also mention of how Franklin came to be arrested and hypothesis of why it took so long for this man to be captured. The article does not go into much detail about the different murders but does mention the case of the “blue van” that was cited in other articles that I read. All of the killings were actually done around the same area, so as far as statistics, there were few except that they were all young black females within his community. Ages or descriptions of the victims were not given in any articles that I read although some articles, not this one, listed two names.  The main law enforcement agency that assisted in the capture of the ‘Grim Sleeper’ was the LAPD who also had some assistance from the California Department of Justice Division of Law Enforcement personnel.

One of the most interesting things that I found about this case is that it took so long for police to apprehend Franklin and he lived within a two-mile radius of all of the killings. This apparently is not uncommon because the “Myth and Murder” article suggest that most serial killers find and kill most of their victims in a small area or one city. The case of the “blue van” that was mentioned in almost all of the news stories about this killer was less than a mile from his home. People in the community say that Franklin is a nice guy, although a “ladies man”, he was always apt to help people whose car was malfunctioning because of his occupation of a mechanic. Franklin came into contact with the law on some occasions but was never asked to produce a DNA sample so that it could be on record. The news article also says that the police were only three doors down from Franklin when they were investigating one of his murders but never came across him as a suspect. Since Franklin was just recently captured there are no further details about the investigation of the crime but during Franklin’s trial some old mysteries may begin to unravel.

You can listen to the 9-1-1 call made to the police at ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7025116

DISCOVERY CHANNEL BUILDING TAKEOVER

I decided to follow a story that has just recently occurred, the Discovery Channel building takeover by James Lee. I followed this story using three different sources. The first is from ABC news on a webpage (http://abcnews.go.com/US/gunman-enters-discovery-channel-headquarters-employees-evacuated/story?id=11535128&page=3) , the second from a MSNBC television broadcast (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38957020/) , and the third from the Washington Post newspaper (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090202259.html).

All three stories painted virtually the same picture. However, ABC did not label James Lee, the culprit, as deadly gunman like the Washington Post and MSNBC had him labeled in their stories; ABC’s headlines read, “Environmental Militant Killed by Police at Discovery Channel Headquarters”. This title would make one think that the police killed a man whose only crime was loving the environment and trying to protect it. IN the bulk of the story ABC did tell of his gunman status and how he held three male hostages just as the other news sources did. The other two sources however made it seem like James Lee was a dangerous gunman from the start and may have been a way to boost their ratings or sales.

Another thing that I found interesting about the three articles on the same story was that one of the stories describes that when the gunman was shot, one of the explosives that was tied to him, went off one of them did not mention an explosive going off and the last dwelled on a more detailed description of what happened. The Washington Post did not mention an explosion going off when the gunman was shot and MSNBC simply tells us that when the gunman was shot one of the explosives went off. By reading this, I asked myself, “how powerful was the explosive I wonder?”, assuming that it had to be some sort of “boom” that had to occur. However, reading ABC’s story, it simply says that “one of the canisters popped”. This statement falls short of an explosive going off and made me wonder why I had not heard about this before. It seemed like ABC was trying to give an overall detailed description of the situation that was at hand.

All of the stories mentioned that James Lee was an environmental militant and that he was against the Discovery Channel for not trying to save the earth and even pitched them a reality show on saving the environment. Lee had been arrested outside of the Discovery building before and all stories mentioned this fact as well as the game show. The sources also said that Lee said that the earth does not need humans and we need to try and save the animals before we start having more humans.  

DEVIANCE - HOUSE OF THIN

http://www.houseofthin.com/entrance/mission.php

The above website is entitled, “House of Thin”. This site is devoted to being pro-bulimic and pro-anorectic. It supports women who have eating disorder such as bulimia and anorexia and tries to form a close knit support community for the women and men with such eating disorders. The purpose of the site is to have a place where people with eating disorders can come and be themselves and not be judged. The mission statement on the page quotes, “Pro-Ana works by allowing the individual to proceed at their own pace in a loving, caring environment in order to gain and/or regain self-acceptance and not to be ashamed of who and what they are. It's truly one of the most accepting close knit communities of any on the net.” They continue by saying that they are not a cult and do not encourage eating disorders or deadly eating behaviors, it is just a place where people can be themselves.

This site actually has a lot of useful material even if an individual does not have an eating disorder. It provided many forums, and education library that describes the many disorders and statistics, and a section to calculate your BMI & BMR as well as height and weight charts so that a person can know their healthy weight. They also have links to other pro-ana websites and news links dealing with these disorders as well as ways that people can improve or relieve their “eating disorders”.

As far as the question of whether this activity should be considered deviant, I do believe that it should be labeled as deviant. Not simply because the majority of society does not conform to these types of weight loss strategies, but because it is very dangerous to the individuals that pursue these lifestyles. Yes, there are many activities that are labeled dangerous but not deviant, but purging and not eating is not healthy for your entire body. Your body runs off of what you feed it and was meant to eat. It is up to an individual to maintain a healthy lifestyle and this is not one of them. Of course some people fall into this lifestyle and find it hard to get out of, but there is help. The fact that there are websites out there that promote the behavior and gives you techniques to slowly kill yourself is outrageous. People pick up this disorder trying to fit in society physically on the outside but do not always see how it can affect them inside. I do think that bulimia and anorexia should be labeled deviant simply because it is so dangerous. Although everyone has different opinions on what they actually consider deviant there is a clear and present danger that looms over eating disorders along with many other disorders.

You can see a video link to a news story about three girls facing the struggle of eating disorders and why they chose to conform to them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDY1pws-kOE&feature=player_embedded#!

Media Criticizing Media

http://www.jobmonkey.com/realitytv/criticism.html




This article that I chose is entitled “Reality Television Criticism.” The author criticizes reality television for being something that it is not, real. It suggest that these so called reality shows use scripts in some cases and heighten the sense of drama to make the shows more appealing to audiences. This online article is critical to self because it is trying to unravel the facts that all reality television is anything but real. The author also draws on some criticism of not only held bythe site, but by others such as actors who criticize this form of media because it involves no real acting skill and programmers are basing show times more on reality series than on produced television series. This is in most part because according to the author, “drama sells”.

This article is criticizing reality television as a whole and not one particular program. I think that the article does not do a very good job at this considering that there is no supporting evidence included in the article for any of the claims that they make. The article however only list many widely held views by many Americans that are common sense to many educated people. It says that people are attracted to the drama but never mentions the idea of reality television to be purely entertainment or taken seriously by people. I think that if the argument went a little deeper into suggesting the reasons why people watched, or did not watch reality T.V., other than drama, the point that they are trying to make may come across better. The fact that the author mentioned that although there are criticisms about reality T.V., there are also people who love it makes the argument a bit more sound, although this does not come till the very end of the article. So although it may not be the epitome of reality, it is still a popular and growing industry.

Lastly I found it interesting that there were no suggestions for improvement. Although the article constantly criticized the form of media, it did not make any suggestions on how reality TV. could become better. There was only mention of why it was not truly reality and how people should not view it as such. The reading by Postman, ‘Media as Epistemology’, at least offered the suggestion that although reality television may be seen as “junk”, that is the reason people watch it; people can be amused by the “so-called reality” television. Even though it may not be the essence of reality, it is an over exaggerated version that many Americans watch to “unwind”, instead of playing a sport or having a craft hobby of some sort.

MEDIA E-FAST

I decided to start my fast closer to night time; I figured that it may be a little bit easier than starting in the morning. At 7:00PM I turned off my TV and sat down to do some readings for my class. I actually got a lot done. I checked my phone every once in a while to look at the time because it the only clock I have. Around 9:00PM I got tired of reading and lay in the bed for about an hour (it felt like) until I went to sleep. I usually fall asleep with my TV so I had a little trouble going to sleep on this particular night.


I got my roommate to wake me up at 8:00am on this morning because she leaves for a class around the time I have to wake up and I didn’t want my phone to have to wake me up. Not watching the news in the morning was a terrible experience, I always watch the news in the morning. I felt as if I was lost; how am I supposed to know what happened while I was sleeping? I decided to take my ipod out of my book bag so I would not be tempted throughout the day to listen to it throughout the day. I actually whistled on my way to the bus stop because I did not have my music I usually listen to. Riding on the bus all I could hear was other people talking and it was actually kind of annoying. I realized why I always wanted my music in the morning. Being in class was not so bad; I had my phone in my bag since I left my apartment so I would not be tempted to look at it. I knew I would be even more tempted to use media today because it was Friday and this was my only class so I did not have any distractions to keep my mind off of it.

I rode with a friend back to my apartment and turned off their radio as soon as I got in the car. Needless to say they looked at me funny when I said, “Let’s talk”. Ha-ha. I then proceeded to tell them about my assignment that I had to put them at ease. When I got home I convinced my boyfriend to go to the park with me so I could be as far away from any form of media. When I arrived back home I did get online to comment on three people’s blog for this class. I thought about hitting the link to facebook after I finished; I could already hear my mind telling me, “no one will ever know”. But I stayed strong and continued my e-fast. When we got back to the house I decided to take a nap since I couldn’t find anything else to do that did not include media. My dad called and woke me up to ask if I heard about the guy who took over the Discovery building in Silver Springs Maryland because he operates a crane right beside it. I told him I had not because of my current assignment. I then grabbed a book that I had to read for class and read until I became tired and went back to sleep. When I awoke, I convinced my boyfriend to play card games with me for an hour. I asked him what time it was and he said 5:45PM. Only an hour and fifteen minutes and I will have gone 24 hours without media, aside from talking to my father and commenting on blogs. The time creeped by extremely slow. We left and went for a ride around Harrisonburg; radio free, for about half an hour. As I waited for 7:00PM to come time seemed to go by slower and slower. I kept asking what time it was and when 7:00 PM hit; I immediately picked up my phone and read all of my text messages and emails. It was actually kind of fun reading the text because people were asking where the hell I was and why I was ignoring them. I spent about an thirty minutes answering text and emails as well as checking facebook. However, after that, I didn’t even turn on the T.V. I went outside on my balcony to read for class… weird. I then went out to eat, listening to the radio on the way there; it was a nice change to the silence earlier. I found that I did not even look or play with my phone as often as I usually do during a normal day. I think that I will calm down with my media use considering I got a lot more school work done. But needless to say I do LOVE my media and I am glad I was not born in the Stone Ages and I have my blackberry :)

My Obsession with Media

I woke up this morning around 6:30am to the sound of the alarm on my cell phone. I then immediately turned on the T.V. to watch the news for about an hour as I lay there and proceeded to get up and get dressed. I went through my cell phone to see all of the 8 emails, 4 text messages, and 2 bbm's that I had received while sleeping and answered them accordingly. After turning off my TV I immediately put my Ipod earphones in my ear and listed to that for about an hour while I worked out. After I got back to my apartment I got on my computer to check facebook, turned on some music and go got ready for classes. While leaving to catch the bus I found myself turning my ipod back on and listened to it while riding the bus to campus and walking to class. I sent numerous text messages the entire time I was on my way to campus. I was free from media for the 55 minutes I was in class but then put my ipod right back in as I walked to the library. I used the computers at the library for about an hour. My mom called and I talked to her on my cell phone for about 15 minutes. I received a text from a friend to make plans to eat lunch and also responded to about 3 emails I had received in the short period of time that I was talking to my mom. During lunch I watched the USA play Iran in basketball in PC Dukes. Other than sporadic text messages and phone calls I did not encounter much media after lunch and when my next class started. After class I put my ipod back on and waited for the bus while I read the breeze, another form of media; still sporadically texting throughout the day. When I got home I turned on the TV to see what was on, nothing good. So I got on my computer and was on the Internet for most of the afternoon. Later that night I got in my car and turned on the radio as I went to get dinner. As I waited for my order I played Brick Breaker on my blackberry. Going home I listened to the radio more and when I arrived home I sat down with my food and turned on the television. I fell asleep with the T.V. on thinking, "I really do use  and come across an insane amount of media daily."